Bureau of Insular Affairs - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bureau of Insular Affairs was a division of the United States War Department that oversaw United States administration of certain territories from 1902 until 1939.

The bureau was created 13 December 1898 as the Division of Customs and Insular Affairs within the Office of the Secretary of War. This followed the Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

, which resulted in the transfer from Spain to the United States of several areas, including the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, and Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

. The word "insular" was already associated with Cuba and Puerto Rico because the Spanish had created autonomous "insular" governments for both islands in February 1898. The bureau supervised the customs and civil affairs of these areas. The placement of the bureau within the War Department reflected the manner in which the territories had been acquired, as well as the view that these areas could be of strategic military importance. In 1900, the name was changed to Division of Insular Affairs. The name "Bureau of Insular Affairs" was adopted in 1902.

The various governments established under the bureau's authority were referred to as insular governments. As a result of the Insular Cases

Insular Cases

The Insular Cases are several U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning the status of territories acquired by the U.S. in the Spanish-American War . The name "insular" derives from the fact that these territories are islands and were administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs...

, the U.S. Attorney General issued an opinion in 1915 stating that the insular areas were unincorporated territories of the United States.

From 1898 to 1900 and again in 1909-1934, the Bureau was also responsible for federal administration of Puerto Rico (which was called "Porto Rico" in official U.S. government documents until 1932). Puerto Rico, also an unincorporated territory, was administered under a civil government created by the Foraker Act

Foraker Act

The Foraker Act,officially the Organic Act of 1900, is a United States federal law that established civilian government on the island of Puerto Rico, which had been newly acquired by the United States as a result of the Spanish–American War. Section VII of the Foraker Act also established Puerto...

of 1900, as later amended by the Jones-Shafroth Act

Jones-Shafroth Act

The Jones–Shafroth Act was a 1917 Act of the United States Congress by which Puerto Ricans were collectively made U.S. citizens, the people of Puerto Rico were empowered to have a popularly-elected Senate, established a bill of rights, and authorized the election of a Resident Commissioner to a...

of 1917. In 1934, the Bureau's functions for Puerto Rico were transferred to the Division of Territories and Island Possessions (later the Office of Territories and still later the Office of Territorial Affairs

Office of Territorial Affairs

The Office of Territorial Affairs was an office within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administration of certain United States territories....

) within the Department of the Interior

United States Department of the Interior

The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...

.

The bureau's other responsibilities included oversight of the United States' role in Cuba, although those responsibilities were sometimes not clearly defined; briefly in 1904-05, some oversight of the Panama Canal; and administration of the Dominican

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

customs receivership from 1905 to 1939 and the Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an customs receivership from 1920 to 1924. However, the bureau was never responsible for Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, which was administered pursuant to an Organic Act

Organic Act

An Organic Act, in United States law, is an Act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States or an agency to manage certain federal lands. The first such act was the Northwest Ordinance, enacted by the Congress of the Confederation in 1787 in order to create the...

giving it the status of an incorporated territory

Incorporated territory

Territories of the United States are one of the four types of political division of the United States, overseen directly by the federal government of the United States and not any part of a U.S. state. These territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United...

, or for American Samoa

American Samoa

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...

, Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

, or the United States Virgin Islands

United States Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...

, all of which were administered during these years by the United States Navy Department.

The bureau was responsible for civil aspects of the Philippine government from 1898 to 1935. A U.S. Military Government was replaced by an Insular Government in 1901.

Befitting its organization within the War Department, the chief of the bureau was always an army general. The longest-tenured chiefs were Brig. Gen. Clarence R. Edwards

Clarence Ransom Edwards

Clarence Ransom Edwards was an American general, known as the first Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, and for commanding the 26th Division in World War I....

, who served from 1902 to 1912, and Maj. Gen. Frank McIntyre

Frank McIntyre

For the 19th-century baseball player, see Frank McIntyre Frank McIntyre was an American military officer who served for many years as Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, responsible for federal administration of the Philippines and Puerto Rico.-Ancestry:General McIntyre was born the son of...

, who served from 1912 to 1929. Future Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...

served briefly as a law officer for the bureau beginning in 1911.

In 1939, the bureau was replaced by the Division of Territories and Island Possessions in the Department of the Interior. This division was later renamed the Office of Insular Affairs

Office of Insular Affairs

The Office of Insular Affairs is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior that oversees federal administration of several United States possessions...

Further reading